dj bean

Jarome Iginla chooses Penguins over Bruins; can you blame him?

Just past midnight on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, Bruins fans won the Stanley Cup. They jumped up and down, smiled from ear to ear and waited in their pajamas for commissioner-in-this-scenario Jay Feaster to bring the Cup out onto the ice and hand it over to them.

Then, minutes before Feaster was set to emerge, Penguins general manager Ray Shero skated through the Zamboni entrance with the Cup, laughing maniacally and parading it in front of sleepy B’s fans, leaving them astonished at how something they were sure they had could be taken away before they even got it.

(This column is being written at 3 in the morning, so if that lede made no sense, just know that it did for 3 in the morning.)

The hockey world was certain that Jarome Iginla was going to be a Bruin. He had told the Flames that he would waive his no-trade clause for four teams: the Bruins, Penguins, Blackhawks and Kings. When it was reported by Aaron Ward that the Flames and Bruins had agreed to a trade, the celebration was on in Boston.

Everyone ran with it. Darren Dreger followed up by confirming the report, and then a lot of reporters did that vague are-you-reporting-it-or-are-you-just-trying-to-look-like-you’re-reporting-it type of reporting. It seemed safe to do. Ward had it. Dreger had it. The sides seemingly had agreed, so it figured to be a done deal.

Here’s the thing that we all failed to consider: In the end, Iginla’s list of four teams wasn’t really a list of four teams. Once the Penguins jumped in, that list of four became a list of one. Feaster (who is the GM of the Flames if the lede really threw you off that much), made that pretty clear.

"We had multiple teams that we were dealing with, had multiple offers," Feaster said when asked about reportedly having a deal with the Bruins. "At the end of the day, it's a process of working with the player. Certainly the player has a role to play when the player has a no-trade/no-move, and in this instance, the deal that we consummated, this is where the player was prepared to waive for."

Bob McKenzie followed with this tweet later Thursday morning: Doesn't matter now, but CGY preferred deal was with BOS. The 2 teams agreed on components but w/o critical 3rd element - player approval.

Dissed and dismissed, Bruins.

Bruins fans didn’t even care that their team had just blown a two-goal lead in the third period and lost to Peter Budaj again. All they wanted was Iginla. It just turned out that Iginla didn’t want them.

Getting Iginla -- and a couple other pieces, say, a Mark Streit, perhaps -- would have been the Bruins’ way of pulling up alongside the Penguins, who had added Brenden Morrow and Douglas Murray in previous days to an already loaded team that leads the Eastern Conference with 52 points and has won 13 straight games.

Not only did the Bruins not get Iginla; the Penguins got Iginla. That’s a two-Iginla swing.

Now, the feeling here is that Iginla wasn’t going to be the absolute difference-maker that makes a team a Cup-winner despite that being every fan’s thought (see the weird lede in which Iginla is the Stanley Cup in minds of the fans), but the Bruins could have used him badly. They definitely could have used him more than the Penguins.

But, in a development that should rank up there with the Yankees getting A-Rod instead of the Red Sox and Wes Welker leaving for the Broncos when an eventual return to the Patriots seemed in the cards, Iginla chose the Penguins.

Can you blame Iginla? We can have the debate about Marc-Andre Fleury’s credentials another time, but generally the Penguins are viewed as the stronger contender than the Bruins, something that was helped by the Morrow trade. Iginla has played for Calgary his entire career, and though he’s been to the Stanley Cup finals, he’s never won a Cup. If he’s going to waive that no-trade clause and leave the only place he’s played, he wants the best chance to win. As things stand right now, that chance seems to be in Pittsburgh. It definitely is in Iginla’s mind, at least.

So now, after Peter Chiarelli thought he had caught the biggest fish at the trade deadline, he has six days to round out this roster knowing that his competition in the Eastern Conference is daunting. In a matter of hours he saw the Canadiens beat the B’s for the second time in three meetings this year to take over first place in the Northeast Division and saw the Penguins add yet another star player on offense.

The Bruins didn’t just need Iginla. They need a few guys. Between the injuries this team has (Chris Kelly and Adam McQuaid out for extended periods), the shortcomings of Boston’s third line this year and the team’s struggle scoring of late (Wednesday excluded), the Bruins could stand to add a scorer, another forward and a defenseman or two. Iginla was supposed to be the scorer and it didn’t happen. The rest of the shopping list should still be the same.

Thus far, trade season has been a disaster for the Bruins. Two guys they targeted and reportedly made offers for -- Morrow and Iginla -- ended up choosing the Penguins instead. They can take it as a tough break, they can take it as a slight, but the Bruins had better take it as a sign that they’ve got a lot of work to do to keep up with the Penguins now.

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In the first hour of the show, Greg and Chris discuss the news coming out of the owners' meetings this week and rule changes. Belichick's blow-up over the league not wanting to spend on endzone cameras was well documented and the guys react. They also talk about the Jets ridiculous tampering charges, free agents still lingering out there, where Stevan Ridley will land and the RB position in New England. Dickerson and Price briefly discuss the adventures of Tom Brady before being joined by WEEI.com's Mike Petraglia to talk all things Pats in the offseason.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

Mut, Tomase, and Bradford kick things off talking about Shane Victorino taking offense to people reading into some comments he made about trading for Cole Hamels. They also discuss Blake Swihart and how soon he could be up if Christian Vazquez starts the season on the DL.

Joe Kelly joined the Hot Stove show where he talked about being ready for his next spring training start after a biceps ailment forced him out of his last outing, he talks about his NCAA brackets and how teammate Wade Miley has a perfect bracket still.

Peter Chiarelli joined the Sunday Skate crew to talk about the Bruins playoff push heading into the final handful of games of the regular season. Chiarelli talked about avoiding some of the overly negative feedback he gets while realizing that the team does have real issues. He discusses what went down at the trade deadline and if he was happy with the outcome, Lucic having a down year and underperforming, the salary cap and if he considers it as big of an issue as it's been made out to be and what the future holds for the team.

It's a big hour #2 for the Sunday Skate dudes - they talk about the B's defenseman and what the future looks like at that position, with both moves the team can make and younger guys in the AHL. They also get into the Bruins philosophy on bringing guys up and sending them back down and how players deal with that. Finally, the boys are joined by Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli to discuss EVERYTHING.

The Sunday Skate crew gets the show going discussing the Bruins big, impressive victory over the NY Rangers yesterday. What can you take from that game? According to LB - Lyndon Byers - who called the guys from the road, not a lot. LB drops a dime on what was going on with the Rangers yesterday. DJ and Joe discuss Claude's lines and groupings and the importance of Ryan Spooner. They also get into Lucic, his contributions this year and if he can turn things around.

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